Silver City Airways started as a stunt in 1948, carrying an Armstrong Siddeley car from England to France inside a Bristol Freighter aircraft. When it landed and was unloading, the crew was approached by an observer who needed a way to get his Bentley back to England. This is how the air ferry started. In 1949 the company hired three Freighters, and in spite of the high costs, carried 2,600 cars, 100 motorcycles and 7,900 passengers in that year alone. In 1951, the company expanded to 8 aircraft, and attracted 7,529 cars, 3,240 motorcycles and 30,137 passengers. To get around a law that prohibited passengers from traveling without a vehicle (in order to protect airlines like B.E.A.), Silver City encouraged people to travel with a bicycle, even a borrowed one! Eventually, cows, racehorses, produce and general cargo also joined the manifest.

For the full article, read the High Road to France.In 1962, economic pressures (including problems associated with its aging aircraft) led to a takeover by a holding company of British United Airways, and in the following year to an amalgamation with Channel Air Bridge, forming British Air Ferries. That entity soldiered on until 1971.There's much more information at the Silver City Airway's tribute website.

Impression by Roger Gould, from Early Airplanes, by John Blake, Camden House Books 1974

On Sept 30 1928 Fritz von Opel made a flight in a glider powered by 16 powder rockets, each providing about 50 lbs of thrust. The flight was a success, the craft reaching a top speed of 95 mph. One flight was enough, however and the experiment was abandoned.

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Canforge wrenches like those above are very rare in my neck of the woods, and these are the only four SAE ones I have ever encountered. Curiously, I've never turned up a duplicate. The wrenches are stamped "Forged Steel--Treated" and the ones in my collection include several whose openings are measured in 32nds of an inch. How long has it been since anyone has produced wrenches in these size. Also, if you look closely at the wrench second from the top, you'll notice it has no fractional size markings whatsoever, suggesting it was either supplied with a particular machine, or it dates back to the time before manufacturers put such markings on their wrenches. I don't know if the "Canadian Forge" wrench below was made by the same company as Canada Forge but, if so, they did make metric wrenches as well:

Canforge tended to focus on much larger forgings, and so perhaps the scarcity of such wrenches is because they ultimately left wrench manufacturing to other companies prepared to specialize in this area.

The Canada Forge Company Ltd was founded in Welland in 1906. In 1912, it was amalgamated with the Canadian Billings & Spencer Company of the same city, and with the James Smart company of Brockville, Ontario, becoming Canada Foundries & Forgings. During World War I, in addition to munitions, the company produced 100,000 of the infamous Ross rifles. By 1919, the company employed 1000 men, making it the largest employer in Welland. In 1977, it was renamed Canada Forgings, a division of Toromont Manufacturing of Toronto. It is still going strong, and counts among its customers such giants as Pratt & Whitney, General Dynamics, General Electric, Siemens Westinghouse, Atomic Energy, BF Goodrich and Rolls-Royce.For early pictures of the company's premises and activities, visit the Welland Public Library site.

Monday, December 29, 2014

The Remington Electric Light car and accessories designed for "Illuminating wrecks and enabling repairs to be carried on at night along Railroads". The car housed a 5 hp boiler, engine and dynamo, and came equipped with five 2000 candle power arc lamps, related poles and wiring.

The company was short-lived, founded in the early 1900's but purchased by Willys in 1908, who saved it from bankruptcy. The marque, however, was continued until 1926 until it was re-badged as Willys-Overland.The Model 79 was introduced in 1913.

Sunday, December 28, 2014

Ron Zeil, The Long Island Railroad in Early Photographs, Dover Publications, 1990

In the second half of the 19th Century the coastal villages of Long island were well served by steamboats lines. The Montauk Steamboat Company bought the nearly new Queen Caroline in 1895 and renamed her Montauk. In 1898 The Long Island Railway, feeling the competition from steamboats, bought the company and according to the above-referenced book, the LIRR ran this steamer into the teens before selling her. The Great Lakes Maritimes database records that, by 1902, she was running between Cleveland and Sault Ste Marie and that she spent the rest of her days on the Great Lakes. She apparently ended her life as a dredging barge and was scrapped in 1972.

John Stevens (1749-1838) was an American inventor who had constructed a number of screw-driven steamboats before turning his attention to the idea of a steam-powered railroad. At his estate in Hoboken he built this locomotive which was capable of pulling several passenger cars.

From the 1953 catalogue of the J.H. Ashdown Hardware Company Limited, Winnipeg, Manitoba.The Peterborough Canoe Company was founded in 1892 and its products are still highly prized. Following the Second World War, the company turned to the manufacture of power boats but was ultimately unsuccessful in competing against cheaper aluminum and fibreglass boats. It closed its doors in 1961.See Mister G's earlier post for a catalogue entry for the company's canoes.

The KC135 and 707 airliner were both developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype of 1954. It was a huge gamble for Boeing that continues to pay off for the company. Over eight hundred KC135s were produced between 1956 and 1966, most of which are still in service. Over a thousand 707s were built between 1958 and 1979.